Ask yourself this:

• Are you a natural light photographer?
• Do you struggle with flash?
• Are your images not as good as you would like?
• Have you ever wanted to try something new photographically?
• Do you have trouble posing subjects?
• Do you want to keep your photography fresh?

REGISTER HERE

There will be some giveaways!!!

Sponsored by: Radiopopper, Miller's, Marathon Press, NIK, Fundy SOS, The Shoppe Designs, 

From Afraid of the Light Workshop. November 2011

Happy New Year!!!

I have a busy year coming up for teaching and speaking.

First up is Imaging USA in New Orleans: Register here: http://imagingusa.org/registration/ I’ll be teaching with Kibbee Walton on Saturday Jan 14 from 9-5. It’s a PPA pre class for only $149 “Hands on Photography Seniors.” See my senior website at www.arlundseniors.com

Kansas City MOJanuary 30th – One day in Kansas City. Understanding Light & Flash. $350. Geared for the natural light photographer that want’s to learn all about flash photography. REGISTER NOW – ONLY 10 SPOTS

Las Vegas NV Sunday Feb 19. 10am-noon $95 One light and the sun. Quick mini workshop on how to use a speed-light and the sun to achieve dramatic portraits. REGISTER NOW FOR VEGAS

AFTERDARK – Dallas TX Feb 27-29 Register here for Afterdark One of the best photography learning experiences available.

Imagequest – Richmond BC – March 4-6th Register for Imagesquest here

NEIPP – April 3-4 I’ll be teaching with Stephanie Zettl, one of St. Louis best wedding photographers. For NEIPP information click here.

New York City: Friday April 6 – Don’t be Afraid of the Light – One Day Workshop. Mastery of on location flash photography with emphasis on making your images have a fashion quality. Registration coming soon

If you have any suggestions for upcoming workshops please comment. If you would like to schedule a personal one on one day please contact me. $250 hr or full day for $750

What makes this wedding interesting? Jennifer, a recent Graphic arts graduate that designed her own wedding and made almost everything. She has a typical story. A broke college student in love. The question I ask, do they deserve great photos or great anything for that matter even though they are broke? I think they do. As a former wedding photographer I have shot weddings from the price of $1500 upwards of $11,000. I do not do shoot many weddings anymore since my focus is mostly commercial, but I still love a good wedding.

What makes this wedding unique is I shot this for $0. There was something about this couple. I felt they deserved better than what a limited budget might get you. She went to the college I taught at and we were talking about her story. She mentioned that she was going to have to hire a friend to come and shoot the images. The first thing that went through my head was "oh don't" The whole "your wedding photos are so important…" was racing in my brain. Her wedding sounded so wonderful.  She was getting married in the park where they like to go a lot. I love natural outside weddings. I knew it would be cool because of her design ability. 

I kept my mouth shut as she continued talking about how the photographer she hired had not shot a wedding before but wanted to build her portfolio so she was willing to do it for next to nothing, I think it was $200. 

I hear about folks like Jennifer and Elijah a lot and read stories like this on Craigslist. "Poor college student needs photographer for wedding…" Many times they offer to edit the images for the photographer and hope that someone will take the offer that is needing to build there portfolio. 

Professional photographers hate hearing about these stories and often say, if you can't afford it why are you getting married? Or, you pay for all the other stuff like flowers and the dress and the cake and the service and… Well, they do have a point but.

Is a broke couple then not worthy of good vendors? 

I'll take you back to the year 2000 where a recent college graduate (1998) was just starting to work as a commercial photographer. Yep, I'm talking about me. My wife and I had no money and were living in my parents house. We wanted to do a nice wedding (of which I knew NOTHING about) We booked a popular spot and started looking at photography. At the time I did not know good from bad wedding photography even though I was a photographer. I am empathetic for couples going through the wedding process, especially when you do not have much money. It is insane.

To make a long story very short, we ended up getting married at the MGM in Vegas. I have a friend that worked there at the time and got us a deal. I flew my coworker (photographer) out to shoot us. I ended up working the day after our wedding because, since we were going to Vegas our boss figured that would make a good destination wedding story for the Magazine I worked for. Her dress was a $99 job we bought at a warehouse. MGM provided most of the stuff. Our entire wedding for everything cost $2000

I want to believe that my wife and I our the typical "cool" client that most wedding photographers want. We are open to ideas and love to do the cool stuff. I even wear makeup. (former glam rock band thing) But there is no way we could have afforded a photographer. Yep we would have been lucky to put together $500 for a photographer and I KNOW how important those photos are. (ours were not great but they are ok and I'm thankful that my coworker offered to shoot us.)

Back to Jennifer and Elijah. After hearing about her wedding I just told her. "You know what, I'll shoot it for ya. no cost. I'm free that day and not doing anything." (it was only a few weeks away.) "If the person you were going to hire wants to come help she can." "And you can edit whatever you want" (Jennifer knows her way around PS as well as I do)

So, I believe that they did deserve at least someone that has shot many weddings. She did not have to stress. She did offer some of her design services for me but I ended up not doing that.

Here are a few of the photos. Nothing was edited in PS, Just quick edits in Lightroom – Most Lightrooms own presets that come with the program.

DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE LIGHT

2 DAYS of INTENSE PHOTOGRAPHING! $650

REGISTER FOR WORKSHOPS

Back in Kansas City. While I was away for the last 11 years I have had some requests to put on a workshop here in Kansas City. Now that I am back home for a while, seems like the perfect time.

Ask yourself this:

• Are you a natural light photographer?
• Do you struggle with flash?
• Are your images not as good as you would like?
• Have you ever wanted to try something new photographically?
• Do you have trouble posing subjects?
• Do you want to keep your photography fresh?

2 day workshop “Don’t be afraid of the light”
September 19-20 & November 14-15
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Demystify lighting using Natural, Strobe and Continuous lighting.  In this workshop you will go back to the basics to be able to fully understand how to use lighting properly. We will also discuss theory on composition and design in photography.  You will come away understanding why, not just how to light your subjects.  We will go on a field trip to a local gallery to get back to the roots and be really inspired.  We will have models available during the photo sessions, where you will be given the opportunity to work with them and lighting while Chuck coaches and mentors.

To make it fun, we will conduct photo challenges in the style of Project Runway and Master Chef type  of shows. This will allow us to focus on certain aspects of the photographic process. We will have fun critique to help understand aspects within the photograph. There are also a number of giveaways from companies like Radiopopper, Big Folio, Fundy SOS, Marathon Press and more to come.  

AGENDA

Supply List:

Camera, Lens and speedlight is you have them, Laptop or computer, jump-drive, inspire board (your aspirations), 5 images to be critiqued

Topics Covered:

Photographic:

• Photographic Theory
• Composition and Design
• Posing, individual and group
• Exposure and camera review
• Photo history and Inspiration

Lighting:

• Natural, Using mirrors and reflectors
• Flash manual
• Flash ETTL
• Proper metering | Lighting subtlety
• Multiple light setups | Effective reception lighting
• Off Camera Flash outside
• Making On Camera Flash look like Off Camera Flash

Workflow & Business

• Dramatic editing techniques in Photoshop and Lightroom without spending a lifetime messing with images
• How to approach Photoshop from a darkroom point of view | Less is more
• Proper costs and selling of your work
• Marketing tips to help get started

Lunch is not provided but will be ordered in.

These will be held at the Prairie Room Event space in Kansas City. Located at  1105 E. 18th St. Kansas City, MO 64108

REGISTER FOR WORKSHOPS

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Meet Spencer S from St. Thomas Aquinas HS. Chuck took Spencer around Kansas City for his senior session and got some great shots that would please even the “pickiest” of dudes. My favorite is this picture of Spencer in front of a red wall. The photo immediately grabs your attention and pulls you in to look at the other photos. Enjoy! More to come soon!

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Ever have one of those ideas for a shoot you just have to get out of your head? I had this really cool idea incorporating birds into looks for the shoot we did Friday. I love Pinterest.com to pull inspiration off the web for shoots such as this one.

It was a pretty hot muggy day on location. We set up and pulled off two looks with the assistance of Todd and Jimmy from a Facebook KC photographer blog. Thank goodness they were there since it’s a little difficult for a 7 month pregnant woman to hold reflectors and huge beauty dishes.

So with the help of Shannon at Rock Candy boutique, a couple stops at Goodwill and Michael’s I threw together a quick look. It’s not styled like what I imagined on a NYC high-end shoot and it seems to work. What I think is pretty cool is Emily’s uncanny resemblance to Natalie Portman.Emily was a great sport (even in the heat) and we enjoy working with her!

Kristina

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One of the things I love about strobe (flash) lighting is the ability to create light. One of my pet peeves is when sometimes photographers over light because at first glance it looks pretty damn cool. It’s kind of like the first time you played with Photoshop and started getting “creative” with filters.

My approach to lighting is to be subtle with it, so even though you do notice it, it is not the main focal point. “Wow, look at that flash” (Yes, I’m guilty)

We recently did a photo-shoot based off a bird or Avian theme. In the photo I am going to discuss there are two light sources. The sun and my modified streetlamp/beauty dish.

What I am trying to accomplish is getting the flash output to be very similar to the setting sun.

She is being lit by the strobe. Take notice of the columns. See how the back sides are being lit by the sun and now look at the column she is next to, it has a nice even light that mimics the sunlight. I think this makes for a very natural looking image as far as the lighting goes. It is dramatic but not to the point that the lighting is over the top. I will post the series soon so you can take a look at all of the photos. most were lit with this thought process, a few were not.

I wanted to keep this image very natural looking. By using the strobe I was able to give the model a look as if she is being lit by the sun. The column that she is sort of looking at has the light source (the sun) facing her and that brightness tricks our minds into believing that she might also be being lit by the same source of light.

If you would like to learn more about lighting and photography in general take a look at my website, www.chuckarlund.com for details on workshops, one on one sessions and speaking engagements that I am at. If you would like to schedule a workshop and think you can get at least 10 people to attend, please contact me for details and pricing.

Some behind the scenes images: Thanks to Jimmy Douglass for the images. Thanks to Todd Davidson for all the help.

My Street Lamp that has now been modified to fit an Alien Bee.

We met Rachel and her mom Loree through a family friend Shila. We have been fortunate to have Shila help us by sending High School seniors our way to grow our business. Rachel had her makeup applied and hair styled by myself while we coordinated some really cute outfits to set the tone for her photo shoot. It was a pretty warm afternoon and with “all hands on deck” we travelled to Rachel’s house, Loose Park and the Plaza area to capture images. At one point to style Rachel’s hair I (Kristina) used twigs to keep her hair style a certain way….always thinking on the “fly”! Chuck has a fun personality and he directed Rachel into getting the images they  were looking for. It was a productive day and we look forward to having more Senior photo sessions with Rachel’s friends.

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